Pete Ashton's Notes & Links
This is my notebook. Stuff I’m doing, stuff I’m thinking about, stuff I’ve seen online and feel is worth sharing.
This is my notebook. Stuff I’m doing, stuff I’m thinking about, stuff I’ve seen online and feel is worth sharing.
: Notes from Sunday 7 December
: Notes from Saturday 6 December
: Notes from Friday 5 December
: Notes from Thursday 4 December
: My bank’s phone app just forced me to swipe through a “2025 wrapped” nonsense and …
: Notes from Wednesday 3 December
: Notes from Tuesday 2 December
: Notes from Monday 1 December
: Notes from Sunday 30 November
: Notes from Saturday 29 November
: Notes from Friday 28 November
: Notes from Thursday 27 November
: Notes from Wednesday 26 November
: Notes from Tuesday 25 November
: Notes from Monday 24 November
: Notes from Sunday 23 November
: Notes from Saturday 22 November
: Notes from Friday 21 November
: Notes from Thursday 20 November
: Notes from Wednesday 19 November
: Notes from Tuesday 18 November
: Notes from Monday 17 November
: Notes from Sunday 16 November
: Notes from Saturday 15 November
: Notes from Friday 14 November
: Notes from Thursday 13 November
: Notes from Wednesday 12 November
: Notes from Tuesday 11 November
: Notes from Monday 10 November
: Notes for Saturday 8 November
: It’s gourd season, and occasionally nice afternoon light season. Quite pleased with this …
: I’m the fucking best at Stackdown until suddenly I’m really not. (Yesterday’s …
: Notable new music: Branwen and Gouge Away
: Was convinced for a short while that Addicted to Love was a ZZ Top song, but I think it’s …
: 81 Eggs I’m working towards a square grid of 100 fried eggs. This is the penultimate stage. …
: Enjoying the new CMAT album a lot. (review.)
: The Unforgivable Sin of Ms Rachel. Lindsay Ellis returns to YouTube (she’s otherwise on Nebula …
: Rabbits are being super-cute today, with bonus symmetry.
: Looking at videos from great-neph’s birthday today and wondering when it was I came to …
: Out of nowhere I remembered being told as a child by a trustworthy grown-up that the word …
: A few times recently I’ve sent something cool I’ve seen on the internet to my wife who …
: It’s damningly indicative of something that despite them dominating our streaming for the past …
: The tragedy of FireWire, an elegy for a 2000-era cable that was sort of like BetaMax to USB’s …
: Every issue of Arthur magazine is available to download. Arthur was a counterculture mag in the …
: The Moral Economy of the Shire As someone who actively dislikes Tolkien I enjoyed this thorough …
: A letter I still owe Dan Nadel about Robert Crumb and racial obscenity I enjoyed Nadal’s …
: Cory Doctorow reviews Bill Griffith’s Three Rocks, his biography of Ernie Bushmiller, creator …
: It’s time for a new audiobook and I’m stuck. Recently enjoyed the R Crumb biog (5*), Ben …
: Wally didn’t exercise good cooling yesterday and was off his food in the evening, which …
: Very much liked the look of this wispy cloud on this absurdly (for the UK) hot day.
: I hated being a child. My happiest day was when I left school and started an adult life where I …
: The Woodstock sticker box - on the site of the Woodstock festival’s message tree is a utility …
: When Heidi Met Carrie by Lynda Barry. A comic strip review of two key texts.
: Why am I filled with nostalgia for a pre-internet age I never knew? I found this article …
: Due to my chronic fatigue my minimum viable hot lunch is a fried egg on toast. This has become …
: Found a link to my site on a local photography group’s website (I gave a talk there a decade …
: Hedgehog Cafe 20/21 May 2025 Patch, the hedgehog we’ve named Patch because he has a white …
: Trailer for Nina Conti’s Sunlight. A feature film from the master puppeteer sees Monkey on a …
: Great interview with Robert Crumb and Dan Nadel marking the publication of Nadal’s biography …
: Currently getting a lot of pleasure from the 2020 Boris / Merzbow album 2R0I2P0. Perfect sunny …
: I definitely live on an “island of strangers”. The vast majority of people living in the …
: Due to my chronic fatigue my minimum viable hot lunch is a fried egg on toast. This has become …
: A couple of people had mentioned “birding”, meaning photographing fowl, was a calming …
: Due to my chronic fatigue my minimum viable hot lunch is a fried egg on toast. This has become …
: RIP David Thomas. Fond memories of seeing him at Shockheaded Peter and then deep diving into the …
: As someone who has been employed as a janitor I’m always struck by how the handwringing over …
: I built a hedgehog cafe in our garden for the hedgehogs and not for the cats or foxes.
: Hedgehog trailcam for the start of April
: Unfurl is “a new publication by #autistic writers on their special interests and …
: Hedgehog Trailcam is back, because hedgehogs are back in our garden! One so far. Gonna do …
: Elle Cordova knocking it out of the park again.
: Every quarter I get, and devour, a copy of Rabbiting On from the excellent Rabbit Welfare …
: Partial solar eclipse, 29 March 2025, 11:53am, Birmingham UK.
: It’s nearly 10 years since Kenneth Goldsmith wrote It’s a Mistake to Mistake Content for …
: UbuWeb is archiving avant-garde artifacts again. In a moment when our collective memory is being …
: Darryl Cunningham’s books were a question on University Challenge this week. 1990s zine Pete …
: We’ll see how it pans out, but Liz Kendall was quite specific about the changes to PIP and it …
: I won’t be drinking this abomination a visitor left in our tea cupboard but I am grateful for …
: Woke up on the sofa, saw this, thought “that’ll make a good photo”.
: I appear to be watching Oscar nominated movies this last week or so. A Real Pain ★★★★★ Just …
: My neighbour makes these neat little film analysis video edits and the latest is particularly …
: Decided last night that since peanuts are botanically a fruit and potatoes in French are …
: The Guardian has a multi-page excerpt of Becky Barnicoat’s new book on the reality of …
: Spiegelman and Sacco on Gaza A three page strip by Art Spiegelman (author of Maus) and Joe Sacco …
: After I was signed off long term with chronic fatigue syndrome last year we applied for PIP, a …
: Can You Put Dead Animals In Compost? In short, yes, sensibly, but it’s not really worth it. …
: King of Waters A lovely comic by Scott Finch who I came across randomly the other day and wish I …
: A profile of Linder, whose art appeared on the cover of of the Buzzcock’s Orgasm Addict, to …
: The Utter Zoo Am loving TCJ’s Edward Gorey week. This deep dive analysis of a 26 page …
: I’ve been using hot spicy noodles from the East Asian supermarket for medicinal purposes (they …
: My random Wikipedia finds. I’ve been using various tools to surface random Wikipedia pages in …
: Was reminded today that there’s a track on Queen’s Flash Gordon soundtrack album titled …
: Thanks to some help from Laura’s muscles we started spreading the mature compost onto the beds …
: An interview with Harley R A figure from the 80s UK small press scene (of whom I’m rather …
: Was reminded recently of Ed Pinsent’s Sound Projector radio show which has been running on …
: Music albums I've been enjoying recently
: Why North England is poor. A solid history, starting with the Norman invasion, through the …
: Molly Soda interviews an artist mining early Flickr I was a very early adopter of Flickr and the …
: Seth’s Dominion and the Realm of an Artist’s Interest Seth’s cardboard city, not made for …
: Found myself shouting “nasal hair is not a joke” up the stairs to my wife. …
: Booklog: I Heard Her Call My Name
: A particularly resonant strip by Jules Feiffer. via this collective reminiscence. And while …
: Got an email from a relative who hasn’t disabled the auto-sig in their Yahoo mail (no shade, …
: Compost Culture: An Introductory Film A nice video about Birmingham’s community composting …
: I see The Jesus Lizard are touring a new album (first in 26 years) so I checked it out and, yes, …
: New Folding Ideas video essay on dinosaur footprint fossils and the creationist industry that …
: Audio to sooth the insomniac brain
: Avoiding doomscrolling with random Wikipedia articles
: There are two great photos of an old brown labrador being extra cute in this series. (Sidebar - …
: Why yes, I did just spend £10 plus shipping on an empty box.
: Ben Teitelbaum on Traditionalism Since its birth in the early 20th century, Traditionalism has …
: A Dance to Jules Feiffer at 95 A brief (he is 95 after all!) interview with the master by Peter …
: Films I watched and very much enjoyed in 2024
: A mention in the Spiegelman interview made me realise I’d not looked at the Garbage Pail Kids …
: All Protocols are Not the Same: Joanne McNeil on Bluesky If Bluesky were like a physical mail …
: Don’t Bleed on the Artwork A beautiful piece of writing, ostensibly about working in a picture …
: Molly Soda’s .gif guide An antidote to the shopping bollocks, internet archaeologist Molly …
: Big Thick Rivers, in map form! A gorgeous overlay for OpenStreetMap. The more upstreams a river …
: TIL the word lettuce is derived from lac, the Latin for “milk”, due to the milky fluid …
: The War on Poverty Is Over. Rich People Won. About the USA, but it’s notable none of his …
: Bit torn on the Observer/Guardian strike this week. On the one hand, always support striking …
: Crappy digital cameras are the new expired film
: What does Werner Herzog’s nihilist penguin teach us about life? The natural world, as we learnt …
: A delightfully rambling interview with Craig Thompson, author of Blankets, about, amongst other …
: The computer got quickly took the lead in Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe last night and I resolved to …
: The “random” flickering of an LED tea light is generated by sound chips from musical …
: Endocrine management of transgender adolescents A report from the French Society of Pediatric …
: After discovering the Prodigy’s Firestarter is built on a Breeders riff I’ve been …
: Anil Dash’s lessons learned from burning things One thing I like to do is make fires. It’s …
: David Graeber's Dawn of Everything
: Today’s photos taken in an attempt to achieve mindfulness, or whatever. …
: My brain has registered it’s winter and therefore @coldwarsteve.bsky.social jigsaw time. …
: Another Rachel Bloom interview I feel compelled to quote at length
: The day Tom Cruise came to Birmingham.
: Niece asked for advice on SLR vs mirrorless cameras and I went on a long rumination about the …
: Laurie Penny has relaunched their newsletter. I got a lot from Laurie’s writing back in the …
: text2dragonforce LICENSE.TXT
: The oldest forest in the world In 2018 Charles Van Straeten’s palaeobotany team discovered the …
: My sister is emigrating (returning?) to the UK from New Zealand next month. Among the insane …
: I see the UK branch of the culture war has shifted to concern for the fate of family farms. …
: Why is London’s phone signal so bad? A really thorough and accessible explainer of how your …
: The Counterculture Switch: creating in a hostile environment I’ve really appreciated and …
: The land of milk and honey was dismal A look back, with context and interviews, at the …
: A humorous illustration by Darren Cullen. (via)
: Tickets for Caption 2025 are on sale.. Back in the 1990s early 2000s Caption was the annual …
: Birmingham’s composting project, Compost Connections, revamped their website and I copyedited …
: How to make your phone go darker For those who read their phone in bed to keep the brain demons …
: How Self-Driving Cars will Destroy Cities The summary here would be “you don’t hate …
: Diversity often thrives at the edge of settled law - Erik Davis on the cantina
: If you want to make something happen, you gotta get the tinfoil.
: I do like how the listing for micro.blog on fedidb is for “microdotblog”, presumably …
: Tegan O’Neil on Nemesis the Warlock How do you review one of the most batshit British …
: The Hallucinogeneration Game – Terence McKenna & The Shamen I’m deep in the McKenna …
: Feel strangely calm today, after weeks (months?) of debilitating stress. It’s sort of like, …
: I cannot write a witty enough comment to match the astronomical level of joy this video gave me.
: The art, artists and artifice of Charles Burns I recently read and was blown away by Burn’s …
: TCJ review of The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic I plan to treat myself to a copy of this …
: Erik Davis profiles Joanna Newsom in 2006 I got this copy of Arthur magazine for Alan Moore’s …
: David Lynch’s Elusive Language I was struck by how Henry Fonda’s performance in Fail Safe …
: New Cure album is good. Like, really good.
: Made my first shelf bracket. Needs refining but really happy with the results. #woodworking
: Thinking about Richard Long’s A Line Made By Walking. www.tate.org.uk/art/artwo…
: The Many Lives of Null Island A deep-dive into some hardcore mapping arcana. “Null …
: The Doc Web One of those “I’ve been thinking about this for a while and someone has …
: The Hedgehog Olympics We recently had hedgehogs in our garden, which caused me to join Hedgehog …
: Gary Panter’s ROZZ-TOX Manifesto An artefact from the 1980s LA punk-art scene. When I found …
: Danny Sriskandarajah - the radical who left Oxfam to fight for democracy A really interesting …
: Eight Years Ago at the RNC Molly Crabapple has posted drawings from her reporting on Trump’s …
: Wyrd Britain A new-to-me but 10 year old blog to be added to my list of things that use the word …
: The coming storm, part 2 Charlie Stross’s state-of-the-world overview, linked to for the …
: Mary H.K. Choi - What My Adult Autism Diagnosis Finally Explained Another writer in their 40s …
: The Rise and Fall of Earthrise This is so relevant to my interests it’s almost a parody. A …
: Could you forgive your childhood bully? Katy Wix confronts a painful memory I read Wix’s …
: The Universe with Dr. Katie Mack and John Green I’m not a big fan of podcasts for anything …
: What Have Fourteen Years of Conservative Rule Done to Britain? I’m a big fan of journalists …
: What lies beneath the Labour ‘landslide’ election predictions? John Harris visits my …
: UbuWeb’s Conceptual Comics collection If you’re the kind of nerd who finds how comics …
: “Debilitating a Generation”: Expert Warns That Long COVID May Eventually Affect Most Americans …
: Milky Way photographer of the year 2024 By now you’ve probably seen a fair few long exposure …
: Plugin Beachball Success While updating my art website I recalled seeing Jon Satrom’s “prepared …
: Ghost’s development of ActivityPub is going well. Our initial work has largely revolved around a …
: Some mad genius has combined Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland in one exhibition. 15 May–25 August, …
: Generative AI Is Totally Shameless. I Want to Be It. Paul Ford: AI is like having my very own …
: Grace Jones - Slave to the Rhythm (video) Curiously I never saw this music video in the 80s …
: R.I.P. Steve Albini Fuck. (The Quietus)
: No one buys books A fantastically detailed breakdown of the batshit economic reality of the book …
: Language of flowers Filed under “stuff I never knew I never knew”. Floriography …
: ‘The courgettes were so good last year, I got a tattoo of one’: life on a Birmingham …
: RIP Trina Robbins (tcj.com) One of the key figures in western comics, from the feminist …
: We Need To Rewild The Internet - Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon (Noema) The story of German …
: The Aerobic Digest: issue 12 My monthly-ish composting newsletter went out this morning.
: Yan Wang Preston – gloriously confronting art history in the nude (Guardian) Wang Preston’s …
: What is the correct speed limit for cities? (YouTube) It’s a trick question - the answer is …
: The 1918 Flu Pandemic Killed Millions. So Why Does Its Cultural Memory Feel So Faint? (Slate) …
: Toiletpaperfullerenes and Charmin Nanotubes (Observable) Toilet paper tubes have the curious …
: The most important technology critic in the world was tired of knowledge based on clicks. So he …
: ‘Allostatic Load’ is the Psychological Reason for Our Pandemic Brain Fog (Vice) I’m …
: We Are Living in a Failed State (The Atlantic) The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed …
: HKMask Manual ( Unofficial ) Reusable DIY Cloth Mask with Disposable Middle Layer Filter. Cloth …
: Adjust your clocks: lockdown is bending time completely out of shape | Jonathan Freedland | The …
: Painting the shed roof today.
: 🔗 Interview with Adam Minter, author of Junkyard Planet On the wonderfully titled blog Discard …
: Found this rock which looked like it had been sliced by a sushi chef.
: 🔗 Toward a Grand Unified Theory of Snowflakes I’ve been fascinated by the study of snowflakes …
: Surprisingly good sunset for a January holiday in Wales…
: 🔗 London’s electric buses are getting fake noise. I love stories about how new technological …
: 🔗 136 Mindblowing & Groundbreaking Internet Videos I remember when you felt you’d seen all …
: Misty in Birmingham last night.
: 🔗 The Blundering Brilliance of Prime Minister Boris Johnson A rather hagiographic explainer of …
: So it seems LED Xmas lights flash at a high, but not that high, frequency rather than stay on …
: 🔗 Be Gay, Do Crimes. Untitled Goose Game: Is it Good to be Bad? Grace does a deep dive into the …
: 🔗 On the Farm Daisy Hildyard discusses animal sentience with the great anecdote of cows so …
: 🔗 Sasha Baron Cohen Says Tech Companies Built the “Greatest Propaganda Machine in …
: Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart was one of the best movies of this year and for some reason I found …
: 🔗 In 2029, the Internet Will Make Us Act Like Medieval Peasants This is a wonderfully insightful …
: Eyes full of tears, by Fiona.
: 🔗 Bright green environmentalism “Environmentalists who believe that radical changes are needed …
: So we were just outside of Plymouth in a bedsit apartment overlooking the sea during an 80mph …
: Tim Shaw performing at Walking’s New Movements, Plymouth.
: Walking’s New Movements conference, Friday evening.
: Tonight’s film was Theory of Obscurity: a film about The Residents, about a band I’ve …